The Downeaster train route got a big boost with a $27.5 million grant from the federal government. This money will be used to make important improvements to the main train line from Brunswick to the Massachusetts border.
The plan is to replace about 124,000 old railroad ties. This maintenance work will make the train line better and help bring goods into Maine more efficiently. The company that owns the train line, CSX Transportation, is also contributing $6.8 million for this project.
According to Patricia Quinn, who runs the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, fixing up the train line will not only make it better for freight but also improve the experience for people traveling on Amtrak.
By doing this maintenance, they can get rid of speed limits and delays, making the train run more smoothly. Quinn says, “These types of maintenance improvements set the stage for future improvements that we might want to explore, for instance, reducing travel time.”
In addition to the maintenance money, the rail authority got an extra $500,000 to plan for more improvements for Amtrak. This includes moving the Portland station, adding a new stop in Falmouth, and eventually extending the train service to Rockland.
The Downeaster has had a lot of people riding it in the past few months, and these projects aim to make the service even better. For example, a new station in Falmouth would be more convenient for people coming from the west or north of Portland.
“It would make it more convenient for people, and it will reduce vehicle miles traveled, because people won’t have to come all the way into Portland,” Quinn explained. “So it will save almost 25 miles roundtrip, to put that station there for folks who are coming from say, the Lewiston-Auburn area.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced these grants as part of a $8.2 billion fund for passenger rail projects. It’s part of an effort to improve train services across the country.
